Train-pipe coupling.



O. CROWBLL & N. A. SIEBENALLER.

TRAIN PIPE COUPLING.

APPLICATION FILED PEB.13,1912.

Patented Jan/28, 1913.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CLAYTO N C. CROWELL AND NICHOLAS A; SIEBENALLER, OF TIFFIN, OHIO.

TRAIN-PIPE COUPLING.

Specification of Iietters Patent.

Patented Jan. 28, 1913.

Application filed February 13, 1912. Serial No. 677,346.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, CLAYTON C. Cnow- ELL and NICHOLAS A. SIEBENALLER,of T If- 'fin, in the county of Seneca, and in the with the necessity ofcoupling pipes for air and steam upon railroad cars by hand, anautomatic operation being use in place thereof so that two cars oncoming together automatically couplev and onseparating automaticallyuncouple the train pipes.

Briefly described, our invention comprehends the use of coupling headshaving each a pair of members formed for coaction with a pair ofcorresponding members on an adjoining car, said-heads having suchflexibility as will enable them to conform to all the conditions. as tomovement imposed by curves in the track, want of perfeet alinement ofadjoining cars, etc.

In 7 the accompanying drawings-,Figure '1 is a perspective view of theequipment at the end of one car embodying our invention; Fig2 is a toplan view showing the equipment of the a joining ends of two cars toillustrate their position when coupled together, one head being shown inhorizontal section; Fig. 3 is a vertical section on the line 3-3 of Fig,2; and Fig. 4

a detail perspective view of a portion of one of the heads.

As the coupling head construction is the samefor each end of the car andfor each car, it will be most convenient in describing the structure tospeak of one of the coupling heads.

The head is composed of'three main members, one 10 having a rearwardlyextending shank or draw bar 11 which is longitudinally movable forv alimited distance in a box 12, or housing secured to the underside of thecar frame, it being yieldingly held at the forward limit of' itsmovement by a coil spring 13, a second member 14 in the form of anoblong block with flat sides, and a third member 15 also in the form ofan oblong block with flat sides, which near its opposite ends has two.forwardly projecting coupling members, each being tubular-or a pipe, andone of which 16 has its outer end outwardly flared or funnel shaped,while the other 17 slightly tapers in form reducing in diameter towardits outer end so that it may enter the funnel shaped end of an opposingcoupling and enter the reduced portion thereof in rear of the funnelshape, a suitable packing being rovided to produce an air or fluid-tightoint between the two thus telescoping pipes. Each of said couplingmembers 16 and 17 at its rear end communicates with a chamber or passage18 in the block 15 which opens out to one endthereof, and at such end iscoupled with the train pipe or hose by a detachable coupling so thatshould the train be made up of cars provided some with our invention andsome without, the train pipes of adjoining cars could nevertheless becoupled.

Between the coupling head members 10 and 14, there is a pivotalconnection that permits limited horizontal swinging motion of the blocks11 and 15 with their attached parts, when such movement is necessary,said pivotal connection being formed by a centrally disposed plate likeextension 19 from the head member 10 whose edge is curvilinear, and aslot in the contiguous portion of the block 14, and a pivot bolt 20which passes through alining vertical holes in said extension 19, andsaid block 14. At

opposite sides of the pivot bolt 20 the extension 19 is slotted to formtwo tongues 21 upon each of which is placed a coil spring 22 which atone end' bears against the head 10 and at the other endbears against theblock 14, whichis provided with a socket or chamber 140 for thereception of the spring,

the effect of said springs being to yieldingly maintain the members ofthe head in a mid position.

The two blocks 14 and 15 are placed along side of each other and intheir abutting sides there are transversely extending channels formingbetween them a recess or cavity for a coil spring;23, which at itsopposite ends bears against the ends of the recesses or cavities in thetwo blocks and normally holds said blocks in alinement from front torear, but should there be any occasion requiring lateral movement of theblock/ 15, as for example by reason of non-alinement of two cars to becoupled when the coupling members 16 and 17 abut, then the spring willyield and allow such transverse movement of the block 15 as may benecessary. The block 14 has at top and bottom forwardly projectingflanges 24 which overlap the top and bottom, respectively,'of the block15, and in said flanges are two transverse slots 25 through which passheaded bolts into the block 15, and thus the block 15 is attached to theblock 14 by a connection that permits the just described, transversemovement of the block 15. Flanges 26 similar to theflanges 24 projectrearwardly from the block 15 and overlap the top and bottom,respectively, of the coupling head member 10.

It will be evident by our invention an automatic coupling having allnecessary flexibility is provided that may be successfully substitutedfor the hand couplings in common use for train pipes, and that ourcoupling has such construction as not readily -to be renderedinoperative.

As has been noted, provision is made for coupling the train pipes ofcars provided with our invention and those not having it.

Having thus described our invention what we claim is 1. A train pipecoupling head comprising three members, two slidably connected together,for horizontal movement transversely of the car, a spring interposedbetween said two slidably connected members to hold them in normalposition, and two pivotally connected on a vertical axis, and

one of said members having train pipe couling members, one of which ishollow and has a flared outer end, and the other of which is hollow, butshaped to enter a member shaped similar to the one with the flared outerend.

2. A train pipe coupling head comprising three -members, two slidablyconnected together for horizontal movement transversely of the car, andtwopivotally connected on a vertical axis, and one ,of said membershaving train pipe coupling members, and springs for holding said membersin a nor mal position located, respectively, in recesses inthecontiguous sides of the slidably connected members and to one side ofthe median line of the two pivotally connected members and bearingoppositely against said two pivotally connected members.

'3. A train pipe coupling'head comprising a forward member having atransversely extending passage from which extends a pair of train pipecoupling members, a middle coupling head member, a transverselyextending spring situated in shouldered recesses in contiguous sides ofsaid

